Telugu sports film ‘Ghani’ slated for March release
Premium- The Telugu and Tamil film industries are on track with their theatrical release plans despite the latest surge in covid-19 cases lead by omicron
New Delhi: Delayed several times owing to covid, Telugu sports drama Ghani is now slated to release in cinemas on 18 March. Directed by Kiran Korrapati, the film stars Varun Tej along with Saiee Manjrekar, Jagapathi Babu, Upendra, Suniel Shetty and Naveen Chandra.
To be sure, the Telugu and Tamil film industries are on track with their theatrical release plans despite the latest surge in covid-19 cases lead by omicron. Southern states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu have capped cinema occupancies at 50% while Karnataka has imposed night curfews. Trade experts estimate that south Indian films, will lead box office collections in 2021, with a 50% plus share – reversing the earlier trend where Hindi films used to lead the pack.
Clearly, recovery for regional cinema had continued into April last year, right before the second covid wave and restarted as early as August with more titles having arrived in theatres since. Hits like Master, Vakeel Saab, Love Story and the latest Akhanda and Pushpa: The Rise- Part One have ensured the return of audiences to cinemas in the south.
Hindi cinema, on the other hand, only saw some resurgence after Diwali in November with Akshay Kumar's Sooryavanshi. It has yet to see a second hit and even sports drama ‘83 starring Ranveer Singh disappointed audiences.
Further, the top entertainment conversations on Twitter this year also involved South Indian films and actors. Tamil actor Vijay’s tweet unveiling the first look of his upcoming film Beast was the most liked and retweeted tweet in entertainment. Vijay’s action film Master, which was the most tweeted about south Indian movie of 2020, was finally released after much delay in 2021 and was the most-tweeted-about movie this year, as far as hashtags go.
This was followed by Tamil actor Ajith’s action film Valimai that is scheduled for 2022, Vijay’s Beast, Suriya’s legal drama on caste struggle Jai Bhim that streamed on Amazon Prime Video and Pawan Kalyan’s Telugu film Vakeel Saab that had released in cinemas in April.
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